Update: a post with the FINAL Nielsen numbers for Thursday and a discussion on The Office vs CSIis here.

Even though the Idol Gives Back telethon on Wednesday night wasn't the typical ratings juggernaut, I now know that's because nobody was going to be eliminated Wednesday and everybody who watches American Idol knew that. But the telethon gave FOX an excuse to run a 3rd installment of Idol for the week leading it to a Thursday night win in both total viewers and the 18-49 age demo.New shows were back for everyone - everyone at least besides ABC and the CW and FOX, CBS and NBC all had good nights on the most-watched night of television.

The Idol results show apparently was a shocker, and it was the first time I'd ever actually received an e-mail from anyone complaining about who got booted off (Michael Johns). Idol led-in to Don't Forget the Lyrics, which despite losing over 8.5 million American Idol viewers, still had a solid 4.0/10 rating/share in the 18-49 demographic,

Comedies were back on NBC and My Name is Earl, The Office and the soon to be departing (to ABC?) Scrubs all had typically good (or better than usual, for NBC anyway) performances in the 18-49 demo. 30 Rock had its typically low viewership and sub 3.0 demo rating, but it's renewed for next year nonetheless. In its defense, excluding last night's results 60% of it's total viewership was in the 18-49 demographic.

Second-place CBS had a good night with Survivor: Micronesia, CSI and Without a Trace. While Survivor is slipping viewers, it performed just about as well in the 18-49 demographic as Without a Trace even though Trace had almost 3 million more viewers. CSI may not be the ratings beast it used to be, but c'mon, what is? CSI drew almost 20 million and had a 5.7/14 in the age demo.

NBC will continue to love, love, love on The Office, despite the naysayers. It drew 9.22 million and a 4.8/12 in the age demo. Contrast that with Without a Trace's 14.61 million, with a mere (cough) 3.9/11 in the demo. Don't get me wrong, WOT's got some sweet numbers, but The Office performs far more impressively in the 18-49 demographic, especially considering WOT had more than 58% more viewers. Puff your feathers out, Peacocks!